Let Your Soul Sparkle

Sparkle Every Day: Creating An "If -Then" Plan

• Jaclyn Sanguinetti

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Speaker 1:

What's up? Sparkle Squad Welcome to Sparkle. Every Day it's Friday over here. I don't know what day you guys are gonna listen to this on, but it's Friday over here and I am off from the salon. I have a ton of stuff to get done and I'm doing a little bit of light makeup before I head out the door. It always cracks me up when I do makeup and then go the chiropractor, because then I leave with like one eyebrow on in my mascara all over my face because she just like puts me face down and tears me apart. But you know, we start off looking kind of nice, in fact, usually if I have to run errands. Now I've learned to at least not put mascara on and bring it in the car and then just add a light layer of mascara before I like to run around town. So, anyways, I wanted to talk to you guys today about something that is really, really important when you are going through a healthy journey. It's something that I always try to recommend we have in place for my clients, and it's something that came up this week during a health coaching session which, by the way yes, you heard correctly, a health coaching session.

Speaker 1:

I do have one health coaching client already. She was somebody that I did a health history on as one of my projects and she was like okay, cool, like I want to hire you. How do we go about doing this? I was like, well, I'm not like done with school yet, like I haven't graduated. And she's like, um, you know what you're doing, I'm fully confident in, like your abilities and I want to work with you already. So I was like you know what, let's just do it Like.

Speaker 1:

I was kind of nervous at first, just like time commitment wise, because obviously with school and work, life is a lot right now. But I figured, you know what? This is a great experience and I'm just going to go for it. So I did and I'm so happy I did, and we were having our session last week and one of the things that she would like to work on is waking up early, you know, and we set a realistic goal for her and stuff like that. But she would just like to get up earlier. So we decided to set some goals for her and work on everything. But she also travels a lot for work, and when I say travels a lot, you guys like a lot, a lot. She travels a lot. She has a very busy schedule, a very full life, and so we were like, okay, there's going to be times when this particular time and this particular goal probably are not going to work out right. And so, even though we're going to have the best of intentions with scheduling things and, you know, doing her best, there's going to be times where there, it just might not be possible to get up early for this early morning workout.

Speaker 1:

So we created an if and then plan. So it's like, if you know you're up really late because you're in a different country or you have a late night meeting with a different country or whatever it is, and you are unable to wake up really early the next day, then what? So it's not saying, oh, I didn't wake up early, so no workouts going to happen. It's saying, if I didn't wake up early, then what's going to happen? And so we just talked about that. How can you work that into your day? And what that does, you guys, is it makes it so you do not feel like a failure if, for some reason, you have to adjust your life. You also don't let those goals go by the wayside, so you do not wake up, not meet your goal and then the next day be like, well, today kind of doesn't work either, and then the next day doesn't work either, because you're still present and you're staying in the game. And so it's a really, really wonderful tactic to help you meet your goals. And so I want to tell you a little bit what that looks like, because I actually had to do that yesterday. It's have an if and then plan and I was actually talking to you guys on a podcast about it and explaining it all, and then that podcast audio just was really really bad. I did it while I was on a walk and you know, sometimes walk audio is good and other times it's not, and this one was like one. You guys, I wouldn't even want to listen to this. I can't put the sparkle squad through this.

Speaker 1:

So, basically, what happened was yesterday morning I just was really tired, I had not slept the greatest night before and my intention was to go to the gym and just do actually a walk. I was just going to get some steps in. Probably would have used some incline if I was at the gym, and every time I'm at the gym Now I've been doing I think I mentioned this before, but I've been doing a little bit of time on the stair climber, and when I say a little bit of time, I mean you guys. I'm definitely starting small with this because it kicks my ass, but I am trying to use it to train a little bit more for some hikes that I have coming up later in this year. That involves stairs. So my workout definitely would have been different at the gym, but the intention would have been to make sure that I got my you know, 10,000 plus steps. You know, definitely trying to aim more for 12 to 15 now that my foot is doing better, and that was my goal, right.

Speaker 1:

But in the morning I was just so tired and I'm like, oh my gosh, and I knew I had allowed some extra time when I set my alarm for Just getting some stuff done in the morning, like nothing, nothing big. So I was like you know, I'm gonna like go back to bed for a little bit, but I'm gonna still wake up. It is freezing in San Jose right now and I'm just gonna have to bundle up and go on a walk, because going on a walk I'll still get the same amount of steps in. I just won't have to drive over to the gym and drive home, and I know that sounds like pretty dramatic, but my gym is not literally right next to me. It can add on like a good you know half an hour sometimes, because it's like 10 to 15 minutes there Depending on the time, and then it could be god only knows what time coming back if I don't go early because of traffic and stuff. Usually, ideally, you know between 10 and 15 minutes, but there's been times once that, like school and morning traffic hit, that it has taken me like 25 or 30 minutes to get home, and it should not and it's real frustrating. So I'm gonna shave that amount of time off and just go on a walk. And that's exactly what I did.

Speaker 1:

It was my if and then plan. It was like, look, you're tired, I'm gonna give you some grace, but I'm not gonna let you completely get out of this situation because your goal is to hit those steps and you guys, it feels so good To know that I'm hitting those steps every day and that I'm not just like weaseling on out of that goal. And so you know, I want to encourage you. Like what are you, you know, struggling with right now? Like what would be the important goal that would help move the needle in the direction that you would like it to be, is it, you know, Having a lunch that's prepared every day for you, that you bring to work, so that you stop going out to lunch? Okay, that's great.

Speaker 1:

So if that doesn't work one day, what's your plan? Where could you go grab a lunch that's healthy and is something that is going to fuel you and help you feel really amazing? Is there like a grocery store close, beauty, you can just go pick up a couple of things? Is there a place that you can grab a really good salad? Could you keep like a really healthy salad dressing at work so that, if you have to grab a salad, you still have like really yummy Dressing that's healthy, always on hand, instead of having like the you know, crappy Ones that are filled with a bunch of garbage?

Speaker 1:

What is the plan that you could do, that you could keep in place so that, if your plan, you know hit the road, that your goal doesn't hit the road with the plan, so I want you to think about that. It's something that's really simple to implement but really will make a really big difference, and it's by no means giving you grace or permission To weasel out of your goals. It is set in stone in case the goal, the plan for the goal, just doesn't isn't planning that morning or that day. It's just a way to, you know, stay on track. The other thing we talked about is if you use the if and then plan. The other thing that I recommend and I don't think this is like official, with an if and then plan, like in coaching and stuff like that, but it's something that I've always implemented myself and I feel like it's very, very helpful let's just say you don't wake up one morning and go to the gym for one reason or another.

Speaker 1:

I Always say, within the next one to two days, depending on where you're at like, if you're traveling, if that's why you know it depends on your situation. Right, you know your situation. I can't, you know, write this for you, but let's say you're in town. Let's say you are in town, you are totally capable of Doing the thing, like, let's say, me, who wasn't able to get up for the gym and went on a walk. Within the next two days, I need to go to the gym.

Speaker 1:

Maybe the next day was supposed to be a rest day or something, so I'm not gonna be like you have to go the next day, no matter what, but you have to get back on the track that you were on. So, let's say you're bringing your lunch to work. You have a day that's just wild and crazy. Maybe your next day is that way too. So you eat half your salad and you save your salad in the fridge for the next day. Whatever it is, you're going to make sure to get back on whatever you were supposed to be doing Within like the next 48 hours, so that you are not just letting that go to the point where it's like two weeks later and you're like, yeah, I was bringing my lunch to work and then like I just stopped and I don't know what happened, right, so you're allowing yourself that grace, but you're also making sure that you, like pick back up where you started. So, anyways, I hope this is helpful and I will talk to you soon. Bye.